Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won Best Film at the Rome Film Festival on Saturday.
Shot entirely on an iPhone, the plot of the film follows the eponymous character who is forced to move to Taipei from the countryside with her sister and mother. Narrated from the perspective of the left-handed girl, each member of the family has to find their place in a new environment while negotiating family dynamics.
The Taiwanese film was a part of the Progressive Cinema Competition of the festival.
Photo courtesy of Light Year Images
A panel of judges headed by Italian comedian, actress, screenwriter, author and director Paola Cortellesi, and including US author and illustrator Brian Selznick, British director and screenwriter William Oldroyd, French-Finnish actress Nadia Tereszkiewicz, as well as Finnish director and screenwriter Teemu Nikki, awarded the honor to Tsou’s film, which was translated into Italian as La mia famiglia a Taipei (“My Family in Taipei”).
The film was honored with the top accolade of the competition, and Tsou and lead actress Nina Ye (葉子綺) gave acceptance speeches in English in pre-recorded videos.
“Hello everyone! This is Nina Ye, and I am so happy and honored that Left-Handed Girl can receive the Best Picture in the Rome Film Festival,” the child actress said in her video. “I hope you guys can love this movie as much as I do.”
Meanwhile, Tsou thanked the jury.
“I am deeply honored that our film has received the first prize at the Rome Film Festival,” Tsou said. “This film began as a very personal story and took over 20 years to bring to the screen. To have it embraced here in Rome, where cinema and humanity are celebrated so beautifully, means the world to me.”
Tsou went on to acknowledge her cast and crew as well as her international producing partners for making the film possible. While shot in Taiwan, Left-Handed Girl included a plethora of international influences, including Baker, who cowrote the script, as well as editing and producing the film.
Baker and Tsou have collaborated on many projects since 2004, first with Take Out, an independent film written and directed by the duo.
Baker in March won Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture at the 97th Academy Awards for Anora, the lead actress of which, Mikey Madison, won Best Actress at the Oscars.
Left-Handed Girl had its world premiere at the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, where the film won its first award, the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution.
Aside from being nominated for many categories at next month’s 62nd Golden Horse Awards, the film has also been selected as the Taiwanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards which is to be held in March next year.
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